Biography of Kinney, Asa, Hon.

Kinney, Asa Hon. The parents of Mr. Kinney were Abel and Freelove Kinney, of Cortland County, N Y.; their place of nativity being New London, Conn. They were among the early settlers of Cortland County, N. Y., and the father was a man of influence and prominence. His grandparents were of revolutionary stock, having served their country in the struggle for liberty.

Asa Kinney was the fourth son of the family, and was born at Homer, Cortland County, N. Y., May 21, 1810. He received a common school education; was also noted as a debater when a young man. He resided in Homer, N. Y., Preston City, Conn., and Cattaraugus County, N. Y. Previous to coming West, he went to Milwaukee, Wis., in 1836, and settled at Oak Creek on the 5th of July of the same year, where he followed farming.

Previous to coming West he had been identified with several town offices, and was promoted Lieutenant Colonel of his regiment in New York. He was one of the first Justices of the Peace in Milwaukee County; was a member of the last Territorial Legislature of Wisconsin, and he was elected as a Representative from Milwaukee County to the Constitutional Convention of 1846, and served on the committee on the organization and affairs of counties and towns, and their powers and duties. He was noted for good, solid sense, but not for speech making.

He served in the State Senate in the sessions of 1848 and 1849. In 1852 he went to California and was a member of the Legislature of that State State (sic) Senate in the sessions of 1859 and 1860. He then located at Ripon, where in 1867, he was a member of the City Council, and was two years Street Commissioner.

Mr. Kinney settled in Russell, Kan., in 1871, where he has since served as City Clerk, Police Judge, Clerk of the District Court, and has been Justice of the Peace for the last ten years.

In 1861 he entered as private in the Ripon Rifles; was mustered into the Fourth Regiment Infantry, and was promoted Quartermaster Sergeant, and in December was discharged on account of ill health. He was afterward commissioned as First Lieutenant, and Quartermaster in the First Wisconsin Cavalry; joined the regiment at Eastport, Miss., and remained with it until the close of the war.

After the war he acted as land and insurance agent for several years. For some time he was a director and agent for the Madison Mutual Insurance Co. Mr. Kinney has been married four times; September 15, 1830, to Miss Diana Spicer, of Preston City, Conn., who died May 2, 1834; January 15, 1835, to Miss Lucretia Grinnell, of Rutledge. N. Y., who died September 21, 1836; March 15, 1837, to Miss Delia A. Rawson, of Oak Creek; November 15, 1878, to Mrs. R. C. Wilson, of Albia, Iowa.

Thus it is shown that the life of Mr. Kinney has been one of unusual activity, mixed with a wonderful variety of experiences. He has held a large number of civil offices, served in the war, crossed the plains to the land of gold, and has traveled through the Central States and Mexico. It would be hardly possible to give his varied experiences in life. From the above record the reader can imagine, perhaps, a part of his doings with the outside world. He is a man of pleasing address, fluent in conversation, and intelligent on an immense variety of subjects. At the age of seventy-one he is in the enjoyment of good health, with a fair prospect of several years of usefulness in life to the world.

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